1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a reflective liquid crystal display device preferably used as display means for an information terminal device such as a personal computer, a mobile computer, and a word processor, as well as a portable telephone, an electronic still camera, a VTR, a car navigating device, a liquid crystal television, or the like; and a method for fabricating the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, reflective liquid crystal display devices have been widely used, especially as information display means for a portable information terminal device, because the reflective liquid crystal display device can be made thin and light-weight and it consumes low electricity.
In such a reflective liquid crystal display device, the development of a diffuse reflection plate has been vigorously conducted in order to realize a paper white display. For example, Japanese Laid-open Publication No. 6-27481 describes the technique for a diffuse reflection plate employing a photosensitive resin.
According to the above-described Publication, when concave and convex portions are patterned using a photosensitive resin, exposure is performed using a stepper exposure device with a photomask. However, in the case where the stepper exposure device is employed, an area which can be exposed at one time is limited to approximately a 5 inch sized area. As a result, in the case where an area greater than a 5 inch area is exposed, it is necessary to change exposure sites more than once so as to cover entire area to be exposed.
When more than one exposure is conducted during the fabrication process of a diffuse reflection plate with an area greater than 5 inches, for example, it is necessary to perform delicate alignment work with a mask, a substrate, and a stepper for every exposure, resulting in a significantly degraded working efficiency. Even if the alignment is accurately performed, due to a natural light-quantity distribution in the stepper or distortion in light rays (i.e., differences in the degree of light parallelization, or the like), exposure conditions differ for every region bounded by a joint (i.e., a boundary of a region exposed at one time). As a result, the shape of unevenness (concave and convex) suddenly changes at the joint area, thereby influencing optical characteristics of the reflective electrode. Consequently, joint or non-uniformity in display is observed.